Of all the allusions to Vietnam War movies in Kong: Skull Island, the most arresting is the Agent Orange haze that director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and cinematographer Larry Fong layer over much of the imagery, giving a menacingly mythic feel to an endeavor that wants to be both a King Kong flick and a political allegory. Written by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, and Derek Connolly, Skull Island circles around a number of intriguing ideas—about American arrogance and the post-war military-industrial complex, to name just two—but never quite coheres into anything particularly incisive. The movie gives good Kong though. Set in 1973, as the United States is retreating from Vietnam, Skull Island follows a joint military-scientific expedition to a newly discovered isle, a place, to borrow the words of John Goodman’s expedition leader, where “God did not finish creation.” That means giant bighorns and bugs, along with the title beast, who is awesomely introduced in silhouette against a setting sun. I wish Kong was given a bit more personality—a moment where he washes his wounds in a lake is the only instance of something like that—but there is no denying the thrill of the action sequences, including his first encounter with the expedition, where he swats helicopters from the sky as if they were flies. (Flinging human bodies is a recurring visual motif.) In addition to Goodman, the too-big cast includes Brie Larson (giving 110% when 90% would have been plenty); Tom Hiddleston (perfectly fine as an Indiana Jones placeholder); John C. Reilly (not allowed to be buggy enough as an island castaway who has lived there nearly 30 years); and Samuel L. Jackson, whose U.S. Lt. Col. Preston Packard—a comic-book version of Apocalypse Now’s Col. Kurtz, with a dash of Herzogian hubris—seems to think he can conquer Kong by staring him down. If you’ve seen Deep Blue Sea, you know how that goes.
(3/15/2024)
